Why is the right to abortion suspended by a Supreme Court decision?

Monday evening, hundreds of people gathered in Washington to protest in front of what is considered in the United States as the pinnacle of the judicial power: the Supreme Court. The latter is preparing, in fact, to cancel a historic judgment recognizing for almost half a century the right to abortion, according to a draft decision which had the effect of a bomb in Washington. “Abortion is health care”, “my body, my choices”, “we should be able to choose our destiny”, could be read on the placards of some pro-abortion demonstrators. Once again, the question of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG) divides the Americans. 20 Minutes takes stock as the legality of abortion is again seriously questioned in the land of the free.

But why is the abortion debate coming back to the fore in the United States?

On Monday evening, the American news site Politico indicated that the Supreme Court of the United States would be preparing to annul a historic judgment recognizing for nearly half a century the right to abortion. The media says it relies on an unprecedented leak of documents and in particular the draft of a majority decision written by conservative judge Samuel Alito.

“Abortion is a deep moral issue,” he wrote in the Feb. 10 document called “Court Notice.” He continues: “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion”, “the inescapable conclusion is that the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in history and traditions of the Nation”, nor “protected by any provision of the Constitution”.

The conservative judge believes that the “Roe VS Wade” judgment legalizing abortion is “totally unfounded from the start” and must therefore be canceled, according to this 98-page text which can be negotiated until June 30 . From the outset, hundreds of people spontaneously gathered in front of the Supreme Court in Washington. Some to protest, others to rejoice.

What is the “Roe versus Wade” decision?

This judgment, which Samuel Alito wishes to have annulled, was rendered by the Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. At that time, the judges had estimated, seven votes to two, that “abortion was a fundamental and constitutional right of women to take decisions concerning their own body, ”explains historian Mary Ziegler on France Info. In other words, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the right to respect for private life, guaranteed by the American Constitution, applied to abortion.

The name of this text comes from Jane Roe [pseudonyme de Norma McCorve]a single mother pregnant for the third time, who in a lawsuit filed three years earlier in a Texas court attacked the constitutionality of Texas laws that made abortion a crime.

But the legitimacy of this judgment divides. To pass it, the Supreme Court relied on a due process clause found in the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and intended to protect the rights of emancipated African-American former slaves. It prohibits, among other things, the arbitrary deprivation of “life, liberty or property” by the government. For the protesters, the judgment “Roe VS Wade” is thus too far from the text of the American Constitution.

Why does the Supreme Court play a role in the issue of abortion rights?

The “Roe VS Wade” decision is considered one of the most politically important for the Supreme Court. The latter has therefore made its entry into the debate on the question of abortion in the United States. His position on the subject has not always been pro-abortion, however, especially since Donald Trump appointed three conservative judges there. There is now a majority of six conservative votes, out of nine. An upheaval whose effects have already been felt in Texas. Since September 2021, abortion has been banned there after six weeks of pregnancy, and in December the Supreme Court ruled not to block it. During the December review of a Mississippi law, which also questioned the legal deadline for an abortion, a majority of its magistrates also clearly implied that they were ready to nibble or even cancel “Roe VS Wade”. The Court’s decision in this case is expected in June.

What could the cancellation of the “Roe VS Wade” judgment change?

If conservative judge Samuel Alito’s project were to pass, the United States would jump back fifty years, to 1973, when each American state was free to prohibit or authorize abortion. Given the very fragmented political orientations of the States on the subject of abortion, it could be that half of them abolish the right to abortion. The more conservative states in the south and center of the country could lead the way and quickly banish it. Still, according to Mary Ziegler, “the majority of Americans support the right to abortion and could call for a reform of the jurisdiction” and thus endanger the judges of the Supreme Court. The “reform of the courts”, with the establishment of a national commission, had already been promised by Joe Biden if he were elected.

In the meantime, Democratic officials have risen up. Some have denounced “an abomination”, such as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and the leader of the Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer, warning: “if this information is correct, the Supreme Court is ready to inflict the most strong restriction of rights for the last fifty years – not just to women but to all Americans”.